The evening world. Newspaper, June 24, 1916, Page 11

———_ —= were con _ By H. Al ra far the nalivon ung women, Use salute, ting a wim ty and my wit, and flatter him with fren f'stane “eeremtpaien a Holly rowvea, fail trom aS ice ffm fh an hes brows )t with and he drow era a, Leo'e revewia her rudiant hie cyunterpart. in ne day hy for. thes plas hein the fw that fae ‘they are to become piave they travel el that opens iuto e great cavern, At one ‘point they ate compelled” io. ctow if on acarvin lank. After th othees matety dn ary ate doce he CHAPTER XXIV. (Continued,) Walking the Plank. US adjured, tho miserable Job, witn, I think, the most awful yell that I ever heard, precipitated himself face downward on the plank—he did not dare, small blame to him, to try to walk it—and com- menced to draw himself across Little jerks, his poor legs hanging down on either side into the nothin hese beneath, His violent fe t the frail board made the great stonc, which was only balanced on a few inches of rock, eseillate in a most sickening manner, and to make matiers worse, just he was fway across, flying ray of lurid light suddenly ent out Just as though @ lamp had been e: tinguished in a eurtatned room, | wh ie howling wil pla 88, "Lord ba poor Job the plank’s slipping!" and Lt heard a Violent struggle and thought he was gone. Bute just at that moment his out: stretched hand, olasping in agony at the air, met my own, and in another minute Jub was gasping on the rock beside me, Put the plank! I felt tt sin and heard It knock against a projecting knob of rock and it was geo ‘Great heavens!" | exclaimed. “How are we going to get back?” “I don't know,” answered Teo, out of the gloom. ‘Sufficient unto the day the evi! thereof.’ I am thank- ful enough to be here." But Ayesha merely called to me to take her hand and creep after her. CHAPTER XXV. The Spirit of Life. DID as I was bid, and in fear and trembling felt aveclt drawn over the edge of the stone. I sprawled my legs but could touch nothing, am going to fall!" I gasped, Vay, let thyself go and trust to me," answered Ayesha, I felt myself slide a pace or two down the sioping surface of the rock, and then pass into the air, and the thought flashed through my brain that I was lost. But no. In anotier. instant my feet struck against a Tro. ky floor, and I felt that I was standing on something solid, and out of reach of the wind, which I could bear singing avay overhead. As I stood there thanking my stars for these small mercios thero was a sip and # sculfw, and down came Leo alongside of me, luilo, old fellow!" he called out, are you there? ‘This is getting in- ing, is it not?” t then, with a terrific yell, Job arrived right on the top of us, knock= both down, by the time that out, tere: bidding the lamps, wh fortuna 1 uninjured In a coup! nutes both the lumps were da curious scene they era hud- died up in a aber, some twelve feet square, and ed enou we looked; that is, except who was standing calmly wi a 1 sald She, “safely have we And now that he ding on, Who Was sitthyy the a red ¢ pockel-hanukerchief, “whom they rightly eall the ‘Pig,' for as a pig 18 he stupid, hath let fall the plank, it will not be easy to res turn across the gulf, and to that end must | make a plan. But now rest awhile, and look at this place, think yo that {t is?" 'o know not," 1 ¢ “Woultst thou b c man did choose this airy nest for a daily habitation, and did here endure for many years, leaving it only but one day in every ten to seek food and water and oil that the people brought, SS alkaeeciaara eel TAGE OF A STRANGE, WONOTRIYL WOMAN AND MITETEMOUS AOVENTURES DER HAGGARD Sb REBAR: 1 el. Deiat re e returned with him a. returned, having learned from him all y that he knew of the wonderful spirit s and by purity and abstinence, and the Ks contemplation of his innocent mind, y times we hear as they sweep through was but a very fe What | Oe more than he could carry, and tata ” an offering in the mouth of the tunnel tur hb which we passed hither?’ ' We looked up wondaringty, and whe 4 j to There wee aman! he named himasit— who, though he lived in the latter days, nad of the wisdom of tha sone of Kor A hermit was he, and & philomoepher, aod skilled in the ancreta of nature, and ha it was who dincovered the fire that 1 ahall wiow ye, which In ures blood and life, and also that he wor bathed therein and breathed thereof mld live while Natu ke unto thea, Heily Noot n hia know! , wan it for man for’ man was born to die’, re did he tell his secret to! hone, and therefure did ha come and | live here, where the seeker afte. life! must pass, and waa revered of the! AimahagKer of the day am holy, and a} hermit, And whon firet I ¢ this country—knoweat thou bh Kaliikrates? Another t thee it ia @ strange tale T he this philosopher, and watted for him when he came to fotch his food, and) hither, the =f froatly Aid I fenr to tread the gulf. en did f berulle bim with my beau- my tongue so that he led me down | and showed me the fire, and told me | the secrots of the fire, but he would | not suffer me to step theraln, and | fonring lest he should slay me, I re- frained, knowing that the man waa | very old, and soon would die, And I of tho world, and that was much, for the man was wise and very ancient, Rad worn thin the veil between that which we see and the great invisibia truths, the whispor of whose wings at the gross air of the world. Then It days after I met thee, my Kallikrates, who had wan- | dered hither with the Egyptian Amenartas, and I learned to love for the first and last time, once and for- ever, so that It entered into my mind to come hither with thee, and receive the gift of life for thee and me. There- fore camo we, with that Egyptian who would not be left behind, and be- hold, we found the old ma but newly dead. There ho lay, and his white beard lay on him like a gar- ment,” and sho pointed to a spot where I was sitting; “but surely he hath long since crumbled into cust, and the wind bath borne bis ashes hence.” Here T put out my hand and felt In the dust, and presently. my fingers touched something, It was @ single human toc very yellow, but sound. i held it up aud showed it to Ayesha, who laughed. Yi sho said, “it is b'e without @ doubt. Behold what remaineth of | Noot and the wisdom of Noot—one lit! tle tooth. And yet that man had all Nfs at his command, and for his con- éclence’s sake would have non Well, he lay there newly dea we descended whither I @! ye, and then, gathering up all my cours age, and Courting death that [ migh. perchance win so =orious a crown of Ufe, I stepped into the flames, and be ! lite such as yo can never know until ye feel tt also flowed Into ine, and I came forth undying and ms lovely beyond imagining, pn did 1 stretch out mine arms to thee, Kalli- krates, and bid thee take thine im- mortal bride; and behold, as I spoke, thou, blinded by my beauty, diist turn from me and throw thine arms about the neck of Amenartas, And then @ great fury filled me and mace me mad, and f seized the javelin that thou didst bear, and stabbed thee, so that there, at my very feet, in tho place of life, thou didst groan and go down into death, I knew not then t.. ! had power to elay with mine cys and will, therefore in iny nied. neas slew 1 with th “And when thou !s wopt, because I was undying and thou wast dead. And she, the swart Egyp- tlan—she cursed mo by her gods. But she could not hurt me, and I--l know not If I could hurt her, 1 did not try; it was naught to me then; so. between us we bore thee hen And after. I sent her—the Egyptian— through the swamps, and it 3 that she lived to bear a son and to write the tale that should lead thee, her husband, back to me, her rival and thy murderess “Such is tho tale, my love, and now is the hour at hand that shail set a crown upon it, Kallikrat take me by the band and lift my veil wi no more fear than though I were some peasant girl and not the wisest and most beauteous woman in this world, and look mo in the eyes and tell me that thou dost forgive me with all thine heart and that with all thine heart thou dost worship me.” “Ayesha,” answered Leo, “I love thee with all my heart and, so far as forgiveness ty possible, | forgive thee the death of Ustane, Tor the rest, tt ig between thee and thy Make: know naught of it. I only know that 1 Jove thee as I never loved before that 1 will cleave to thee to the end. Now," answered Ayesha, with proud humility, “now when my lord doth spi with thus royally and givo so free a hani it cannot be- to lag behind in words and ed of my generosity. He- and sui ok his hand and placed it upon her shapely head and then bent herself stowly down till one knee for un Instant touched the ground—"behold, in token of submis- sion do I bow me to my lord, He hold,” and she kissed him on the lips, “In token of my wifely love do I kiss my lord, Behold," anc her hand upon his heart, the sin I sinned, by my lonely centuries of walting wherewith it wiped out, by the great love wherewith I love, und by the Spirit—the ternal Thing that doth beget all 1 from whom it ebba, to whom it re- turn age IT swear, I swear, even in this first most holy hour of com. pleted Womanhood, I swear that. I will abandon Evil und cherish Good." Taking one of the lamps, she ad- vanced toward the end of the cham. that was roofed in by the swaying bi where she halted. We followed her, and percetved that in the wall of the the was a stair, or, to be m , that some projecting knobs k had n so shaped as to form a good imi- tation of a stair, Down this Ayesha began to climb, springing trom step Evening World Daily Magazine: to step iike a chamois, and after her we We had de hw tre! first outward and then inward, like 'N a faint glow 1 heard Ay Mef as this I We stood in a third cavern, some fitty feet in length by, perhaps, as great a Across the far end of the cavern, with @ grinding and crashing noise— a noise so dreadful and awe-inspiring that we all trombled, and Job actually sunk to his knees--there flamed out an awful cloud or pillar of fire, like a rainbow, many colored, and, like the Ughtning, bright. For @ space h rible noise it paxsed away “Draw near, bosom of the great world. We followed her through t glow up to the head of the cave, tiil at last we stood before the spot where ‘Then suddenly, whilst I rejoloed in hb this splendid vigor of a new-found elf, from far, far away there came a dreadful muttering noise, that grow and grew to 4 crash and a roar, fo astonishing was the many-<col- ored cloud that all of us, save She, who stood up and stretched her hands toward the fire, sank down and bid our faces in the sand, When tt was gone, Ayesha spoke. mighty moment | great stand in it. garments, : though thee it will not hurt. Thow must stand in senses will endure, and when it ems shouldst doubt. Tell me, Kallikrates, 1f thou seest me stand in the fame and come forth unharmed, wilt thou enter also. “It 1s well,” she said altogether lost will for the second time bathe ma omenaneens in this living bath. Fain would I add If that bo powelbia, Te it be mot posstt. ¢ TAKE THE EVENING WORLD WITH YOU ON YOUR VACATION SONGS, se ateattitis: So that you will not miss any of the weekly novels and mentary pause, "Is there another and Gain dip mo in the flame, first [ my heart of passion a that Egyptian Amenartas, apd there- Satu WILL You GoTo PINES ware 1€ Tus wtf SHE DOESK'T Love RE ~ 1A GOING To HE WAR uti Bite WIT JACK, Rees ARE AWFUL O.Jack YO Ta Souk Patina SWELL UNIFORM post Sovoier! fore, despite my strivings to be rid pillar slowly twisted and thundered thereof, hath passion and hatred been off withersvever it passes to in the stamped upon my soul from that sad bowels of ie great earth, leaving hour to this, But now is it other- Ayesha atanding where it had been. wine, As soon as it was gone she stepped oN re thos, prepare even forward to Leo's side—it seemed to as though thy last hour was at hand me that there was no spring in her and thou wast about to cross to the step-— and atretohed out her hand to land of shadows, and not through tho lay It on his shoulder, I gazed at her gates of most glorious life, Prepare, arm. Where was its wonderful round- T gay!” ness and beauty? It was getting thin bofore my eyes! I auppone that Leo pe came @ few moments’ “wavnat in it, my Kalifkrates?® she pauso during which Ayesha paid, and her volcecwhat was the followed with less grace, When nded some fifteen or six- we found that they ended endous rocky slope, running ‘ow pro) through which gleamed f ligh ha give a algh of re- dawned upon us. and angular. And her CHAPTER XXVI. Heaven!-rher face was growing eld height and’ ‘thirty wide. What We Saw. w it also; certainly he recoiled @ step or two. seemed to be gathering up matter with those deep and thrillin, her strength for the flery notes? | They were quite high an trial, while we clung to cracke “Why, what is it-—what In it?” she sach other, and waited in utter si- eaid; Mon tinedly: |] feel dased, ence. Surely the quality of the fire hath not At last, from far, far away came «) red. Can the principle of Lite the first murmur of sound, that grew Mer? Tell ine, Kallikrates, is there aught wrong with my eyes? I see and rrow till it began to crash and {GENE Tene Win, Oy Ror hand to bellow in the distance, As sho heard her head and touched her hatr—and, it Ayesha swiftly threw off her oh, horrors of horrors! it all fell*off sauzy wrapping, loosened the golden [Pon the floor, leaving her utterly snake from her kirtle, and then, She was shriveling up. Smaller shaking her lovely hair about her like she grew, and smal ti & garment, beneath {ts cover slipped was no larger than a she bi the Kirtle off, and replaced the shaky Now the skin was puckered into belt around her and outside the million wrinkles and on tho shapele massea of falling hi There she face was the stamp of unutterable stood before us as Eve might have pa forty seconds, tt flamed an: thus, turning slowly round an. and then by degresa the ter- 1 know not whither— leaving behind It the same rosy glow that we had first seon, draw near!" cried with a voice of thrilling ex- “Behold the very Fountain art of Life as It beats in the rosy the great pulse beat and the great stood before Ads n . i f mm, clad iu nothing — On the very spot where twenty cen. flame pansed, | And as ve went W® but her abundant locks, held round turies before had slain the old Passene Sean bla: ot ® BG splen jy her golden band; and no words Kallikrates, she herself fell down and of mine can tell how sweet she died. looked-—and yet how divine. Nearer What had happened to bring this and nearer came the thunder wheels shocking change about? Had the na- of fre, and as they came she pushed ture of the life giving Ire changed? one ivory arm through the dark Did it perhaps from time to time send maases of her hair and flung tt round forth an easence of Death instead of ‘3 neck, Qn ensence of Life? Or was it that “Oh, my love, my hove,” she mur- the frame once charged with its mar- mured, “wilt thou ever know how I vellous virtue could bear no more, #0 have loved thee!” and she kissed him that were tho on the forehead, and then went and mattered not at what lapse of time— stood in the pathway of the flame the two impregnations neutralized of Life. each other, and left the body on which On came the crashing, rolling noise, they acted as it was before it ever and the sound thereof was as though came into contact with the very & forwat were being swept flat by a essence of life? ‘This, and this alone, mighty wind, and then tossed up by would account for the sudden and 1t like so much grass, and thundered terrible aging of Ayesha, as tho whole doWn @ mountain side. And now the length of her two thousand years took e@dge of the pillar of fire appeared. effect upon her, ‘ore it, “Now, Kallikrat who sald, “the at hand, When the $ again thou must First’ throw aside thy will burn thei, flame ce for it the flame while thy braces thee suck the tire down into | Ayesha turned toward !t, and ‘Then, stepping over the perfumed thy very heart, and let it leap and #tretched out her arms to greet !t. On es of dark hair that lay upon th play avound thy every part, go that Jt came, very slow) id lapped her sand, 1 stooped down by Job, Who was thou lose no molety of ita virtue, Found with flame. 1 saw the tire run | face, und tlrned him liearest thou me, Kallikrat al Up ber form. I saw her iirt it with « so his arm fell back “E hear thee, Ayesha,” answered DOth ber hands as though {t wera ina way that I did not like, and which Leo, “but of a truth-L am no cow- and pour it over her head. I sont @ chill through me, and [ glanced ard—but I doubt ma of that raging saw her open her moui and anarply at him. One look was enough, Se EOW knew that ie wilt, draw it down into her and a Our old and faithful servant was dead, dread and we nderful tit was. When Leo came to himself, which Hy Geatroy Me FO IDAs SIG Got muadeniy g kind of chnage he Git witha mena ocd trembling of lean all do he added, gang ove her S808, ne wills Van> the limbs about ten minutes attcrward, anny 3 and in its place there came @ and 1 told him that Job wag dead, he areeba thou it for a minute, and dry pang look; "the rounded fice morely ran ur FY ag dead, “It is not wonderful that thou goomed to grow pinched, us though | As Iwo mat up I saw another some great anxiety were leaving its dreadful thing. When we entered that impress upon it, ‘The gionous eyes, awful place hia curling hair had been too, lost their light, and, as [ thoucht, of ths ruddiest gold, now it was turns if mp form its perfect shape und erect- ing gray and by t ime we gained é ui ene, the outer wr it was snow white, Bee "he answered, “I will enter, | rubbed my eyes, thinking that I sides, he looked twe nty years older. nif it slay me." was the victim of some hu nation, “What is to be dona, old fellow?” he ‘And that will I als or that the refraction from tie in 11, In a hollow, dead sort of votce, tense ght produced an optical de. ‘Try and get out, 1 suppom,” I lusion; and, as 1 did so, the flaming gswered, “Tbou art not n folly. See, now, I may continue to enjoy the daily magazine, comic and other Special features, Include them in your summer reading. Order the Evening World Mailed to Your Summer Address . ’ why 1 would onco When tue full was id of hatred of decper cause tasted of its ¥ re face—by th: rday! J L5 We went to tho pile of ripplin, and each of us drew from tt a shining lock, and these locks we still have, the it sole’ memento that ta left to us o Ayesha ax wo knew her in the fulness lying panting ai Leo pressed of her grac the perfurn hair to his Ups. “She called to 1 he sald, hoaracly, should meet aguin, never will forget her, and glory, By heavent | to say to apothor livii os she waited for me.” comes back beautiful as we knew her, But supposing sie came back like that!" And then we went. CHAPTER XXVII. We Leap. E passed through the caves without trouble, but when we came to the slope of the In- stared us tn the face, The first of these was the laborious nature of the ascent, and the next the ex- treme dificulty of Onding our way. In due course we found ourselves back Im the little chamber, where the benighted Noot had Mved and died, But now a fresh terror stared us in the face, It may be remembered that, owing to poor Job's fear and awk- wardness, the plank upon which wo bad crossed from the huge spur to tha rocking-stone had been whirled off into thi if below. How were we to eross without the plank? There was only one answer—we or else atop must try and jump # where we were till we starved. The distance in {taelf was not @o very great—between eloven and twelve feet, I sbould think-and I have seen Jump over nineteen when ho was A young fellow at college; but then, think of the conditions. Two weary, worn-out men, one of them the wrong side of forty, a rooking-stone to take off from, @ trembling point of rock @ome few feet across to land on, and @ bottomiess gulf to be cleared in raging gale. But one thing was clear, we could not attempt that leap in the dar the only thing to do was to walt for the ray of light which pierced through the gulf at sunset. Shortly after this, suddenly, with. out the slightest previous warning, the great red knife of ilwht came stabbing the darkness through and through, struck the swaying stone on which we lay, and rested {ts sharp point upon the spur opposit “Now for it," guild Leo—"now or “Who {a to ga first?” said I. “Do you, old fellow," answered Lao, “I will sit upon the other side of the atone to steady tt, You must take as much run as you can and Jump high; and God have mercy on us say I ‘Good-by, my boy," I said, “I hope that we shall meet again, wherever {It 14 that we Ko to. ‘The fact was I did not expect to live another two minutes. Next I retreated to the far aide of the rock and waited till one of the chopping gusts of wind got behind me, and then commending my soul d, Tran tho length of the huge some three or four and thirty ‘and sprang wildly out into the dizzy alr, Ob! the sickening terrors that I felt as [launched myself at that little point of rock, and the horrible eense of despair that shot through 5 rear not to forget her,” ‘and swore that we Tiere 1 swear at, 1f we live to get out of this, [ will not for all iny days have anything woman, and that wherever I go I will wait for her Tntuny I thought to myself, “if she verted cone two difficultics 24: 1916 ROMANCE LOVE JEALOUSY HATE my bratm net realized § tt hed Jumped short! Mut we it wa my fom Raver touched tha point; they went dows into mpace, only my hand and body cama in ‘contact with It. eripped att: with @ yell, but one hand alipped and f swung right [found holding by the other, no that jE faced the atons trom which f had eprung., Wiidly | atretched up with my left ha im th under part of the spur, #0 that ite point was touching my head. Therefore even if I could | Rave found the strength fT could not pull myself up. The most that fT could do vuld be to Bang for about @ minute and then drop down, down into the bottomless pit, I heard Leo give @ cry and then him in midatr springing it ike a chamots, It wae yp that he took under the nee his terror and despa Glearing the horrible @ulf as though it were nothing; and landing weil on to the rocky point, he threw himueif upon hin face to prevent his pitching off it Into the depths, I felt the spur above me shake beneath the ahock of his impact, and as it did #0 I saw the rocking stone, that h violently depressed by him as he jeprung, fly back when relieved of | weight till, for the first time during jall these centuries, it got beyond Its balance and fell with @ most awful which had once served the philosept: Noot for @ herinitage, as I have no doubt, forever hi tically sealing | tho passage that leads to the Place of Afe with some hundreds of tons of rock, Next instant I felt Teo acize me hy the right wrist with both hands. By lying flat upon his atomach on the point of rock he could just reach me, “You must let ., and swing your. {self clear,” he said in a calm and col tected voice, “and then ( will try and pull you up, or we ht] both go to- gether, Are you ready | By way of answer I let go, firet with my left hand and then with the right, and swayed out as a conse- quence clear of the overshadowing rock, my weight hanging upon Leo’ arms. For a few seconde I ewung to and fro while Le gathered himself for the effort, and then [ heard his sinewa cracking above me, and felt myself lifted up as though I wore a little hair Child, till T got my left arm round the rock and my chest was resting on ‘Tho rest was easy; in two or three up and wo were by aide, trembling like leaves, and with the cold per- spiration of terror pouring from our aking, And then, as before, tho light went out like @ lamp. For somo half hour we lay thus without speaking @ word, and then at length we began to creep along tho great spur as best we might in the dense gloom. As we got toward the face of the cliff, however, from which the spur sprung out Hke a spike from @ wali, the light tnoreased, though only a very little, for it was night overhead. After that the gusts of wind decreased, and we got alon: rather better, and at last reac’ the mouth of the first cave or tunn But now a fresh trouble stared us in face; our oll was gone, and the ips were no doubt orusbe! to wder beneath the fallen rocking stone, We were even without a drop of water to stay our thirst, for we had drunk the last in the chamber of Nvot. How were we to see to make our way through this last boulder- strewn tunnel? Clearly, all that we could do was to trust to our sense of feeling. Our only guide was the aide of the cavern, which wo kept touching. On we went, foobly, and still more feebly, for hour after hour, till at last we once more beheld the light of the day and found ourselves outside the tunnel in the rocky fold op the outer surface of the cl? that, it will be remembered, led into it. It was early morning. “One more effort, Leo,” I gasped, ‘and we shall reach the slope where Billalt ts, if he basn't gone. Come, don't give way,” for he had cast him- elt upon his face. He got up, and, jeaning on each other, we Kot down fty feot or so of cliff somehow not the least notion how, I remember that wa found our. selves lying In @ heap at the bottom, and then once more began to drag ourselves along on our banda and kneos toward the grove where Sho had told Billali to awalt her rearrival, for We could not walk another foot, We had not gone fitty yards in this fash- ion when suddenly one of the mutes emerged from some trees on our loft. He stared an dup his b nearly fell to the starved off as h more seconds I wi the grove sot away, No wonder that he was hor- rified at our appwrance, tor we wast have been a st win, Leo with turned @ snowy Ww nearly rent froin his bo face and his hands « mass of bruises, cuts and blood, was a suletently alarming spectacle, as he painfully draxged himself along the ground, and I have no doubt that [was Ute better, I know that two days afterward when I looked at my face In some water T scarcely knew my. Ver been famous for it this day, somethin resembling that wild look with which a startled person wakes from deep sleep more than anything that [ can think of, Presently, to my intense relief, T sow ool Bilal hurrying toward us, and even then 1 could scarcely help smiling at the expression of conster- nation on his dignitied countenance, “Oh, my Baboon! my Baboon!" he cried, “my dear son, ts It indeed thee and the Lion? Why, his mane that was as ripe corn is white like the snow, Whence come yo, and where 3% By MARY R BERTS RINEHART WEXT WEEK'S COMPLETE NOVEL IN THE EVENING WORLD Mystery adds to the absorbing interest of this story of a Great Doctor and Rival Nurses I fhe who Enter Into fe the Pig, and where, tor, Mhe- whee Must-he-obeyed? “Pend, both dead,” t answer: Deal!” he gnaped pone ble! never diee—dead How can it be and then poresiving, I think, that hie face was being watched by the mutes who had come Fanning uo, he cheeked htmasif and mMotionéd to them to carry us to the Tr a od camp, which they CHAPTER XXVIII. Over the Mountain. PD He naxt thing T recollect tea feoling of the mowt dreaatul stiffness, and « wort of Vague idea passing through my balf-awnkened brain. that T was @ carpet that had just been beaten. I opened my eyes, and the first thing they fell on was the venerable countenance of our old friend Hillall, who was seated by the aide of the improvised bed upon which 1 was siseping, and thoughtfully atroking his long beard. The nlgnt of him at once brought back to my mind @ recollection of all that we had receutly passed through, which’ was accentuated by the vision of poor Leo lytng opposite to me, his face knocked almost to a jelly, and bis beautiful crown of curls turned from yellow to white, aud J abut my eyes again and Broaned, “Thou hast slept long, my Baboon,” @aid the old Biltall, ¢ “How long, my father?” T asked. “& round of the sun and @ round of the moon, a day and a night, hast thou alept, and the Lion also, Sea, he — yet.’ “Blessed is sleep,” I answered, “for it swallows up recollection.” “Tell me," he sald, “what hath be- fallen ye, and what is this etrange tory of the death of her who dieth not. Hethink thee, my son; if this be true, then is thy danger and the dan. ger of the Lion very great~nay, al- Most is the pot red wherewith ye shall hose re Qireaty hungry feast, Knowest thou that these mahagger, my children, these dwellers tn the caves, hate ye more because of their brethren whom She Lys to the torture for ye? Assuredly, if once they learn that there is naught to fear from Hiya, from th» terrible She-who-must-be-obeyed, they will slay ye by tho pat. But Jet ae hear thy tale, my poor Baboon.” ‘Thus adjured, I eet to work and told bim—not everything, indeed, for [ did not think It destrable to do so, but suf- ficient for my purpose, which Was to make him understand that She was really no more, having fallen into some fire, and, as I put it—for the real thing would have been Incomprenan- sible to bim—bveen burned up. But I clearly saw that he did not believe ip the report of Ayesha’s death. “And now,” concluded Billall, “what wouldst thou do my Baboon? “Nay,” I said, “I know not, my Can we not escape from this country?” Ho shook his head. “Bilal,” I satd, “once, thou knowost, I did save thy life. Now pay back the debt, my futher, and save me mine and iny friend's, the Lion's, Also, if thou be right, and if She doth but hide herself, surely when sho comes again he shall reward the ‘My won the Baboon,” answered the old man, “think not that F have an ungrateful heart. Well do T remember how thou dust reseus me When those dogs stood by to see me drown. Measure for measure will I gtve thee, and if thou canst be saved, surety 1 will save thee, Listen; by dawn to-morrow be prepared, for Mtters shall be here ta bear ye awey across the mountains, and thro’ the marshes beyond. Thies will I do, saying that it 1s the word of Bho that it bo done.” At dawn the old man himself aps Peared, and told us that be had, by using She's dreaded name, succeeded in getting the necessary men and twa guides to conduct us across the swamps, and that he urged us to start at once, ut (no game time announcing his inten to accompany us, 80 ag to protect us against treachery, Accordingly we started in the ite tera. For three days, through stench and mire, and the all prevat!ing flavor of fever, did our bearers strugeio along, till wt length wo camo to open rolling ground, quite uncultivated and moi but covered with game which lies beyond that most desolate, and without guides ut+ terly Impractica district, And here on the following morning we bade farewell, not Without some regret, td old Billa, who stroked his| white beard and solemnly blessed us, We must strike out for the Zam- T suid, “but God knows evor get there," eo nodded, Sumfce it to say that wo ald, after Aship’ and privations, which proved to tand seventy miles of where Hillall left us. be abo south wo were for six months by a savas tribe, who be utural beings, ¢ Leo's youthful enow-white hair, From rf we wer to fall in with a lently fortunate hait iste Portus guese elephant hunter who had fole lowed a troop of elephants further ine land than he had ever been before, This man treated us most hospltably and ultimately through bis assisthnee we reached Delazoa Bay more than eighteen months from the day when. wo emerged from the marshea of Kor and tho very next day inanaged to catch ons of tho Donald Currie boats that run round the Cape to England, Woe set our foot on the quay at Southampton exactly two years from the date of our departure upon our wild and seemingly ridiee ulous quest. nao ( N